Managed Services Spending Will Be Flat

Managed services will take up slightly less of the IT budget, falling from 13 percent in 2016 to 12 percent, according to the Spiceworks results. That's pretty consistent among businesses of all sizes represented in the study.

More specifically, spending on online backup and recovery is expected to remain relatively flat while spending on web hosting is expected to drop slightly, the survey found.

The takeaway: "IT service providers shouldn’t expect a big boost in demand next year," said Peter Tsai, an analyst at Spiceworks, in an email response to a question from ITBestOfBreed. But amid the economic uncertainty in Europe, there may be opportunities there with an expected 4-percent increase in consulting across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), he added.